Old Fort Townsend State Park & Rothschild House

Project Overview
Washington State Parks has begun land-use planning project for Fort Townsend State Park in Jefferson County and Rothschild House in Port Townsend.

The planning project, also known as classification and management planning (CAMP), includes the four planning stages described below. The CAMP project will address protection of natural and cultural resources and management of recreation activities at Old Fort Townsend (e.g., camping, picnicking, and trail uses) and explore ways to best preserve and interpret the Rothschild House historic site.

The entire planning process includes a series of public workshops over about a eight-month period. Project staff will post information from the workshops for public review and comment at each stage of the process.

Stage 1 - Identify Issues & Concerns
The purpose of this stage is to understand what is important to the park community, what to change or save in the state park. This helps get a sense of the range and type of issues that need to be considered through the planning process.

Stage 1 Documents

Stage 2 - Exploring Alternative Approaches
At this stage, the planning team suggests potential alternative approaches to address the various issues and concerns raised by people in stage one. No preferred alternative is established, rather this is an opportunity to understand the range of possibilities.

Stage 3 - Preparing Preliminary Recommendations
The best ideas from the alternative approaches developed in stage two are combined into a preliminary plan in this stage. The plan includes recommendations for use and development of land, changes to property boundaries and ways to address issues raised during the planning process. Another important document completed at this stage is the SEPA checklist that describes environmental impacts of the recommendations, available for public review upon request.

Stage 4 - Preparing Final Recommendations
At stage four, final adjustments are made to recommendations and submitted to the seven-member Parks and Recreation Commission for approval. The public is encouraged to attend the commission meeting and provide testimony or to provide written comment.